The present invention generally relates to image file header definition. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for defining parameters, such as image orientation, in an image file header.
Healthcare environments, such as hospitals or clinics, include clinical information systems, such as hospital information systems (HIS), radiology information systems (RIS), clinical information systems (CIS), and cardiovascular information systems (CVIS), and storage systems, such as picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), library information systems (LIS), and electronic medical records (EMR). Information stored may include patient medical histories, imaging data, test results, diagnosis information, management information, and/or scheduling information, for example. The information may be centrally stored or divided among a plurality of locations. Healthcare practitioners may desire to access patient information or other information at various points in a healthcare workflow. For example, during surgery, medical personnel may access patient information, such as images of a patient's anatomy, that are stored in a medical information system. Alternatively, medical personnel may enter new information, such as history, diagnostic, or treatment information, into a medical information system during an ongoing medical procedure.
Current medical information storage and management systems store and/or process large amounts of data. Additionally, medical data being processed and/or stored by medical information storage and management systems changes frequently. The large volume of data places a heavy burden on the systems processing and/or storing the data. Thus, a system and method for increased flexibility and improved processing of medical data would be highly desirable.
Many vendors in the medical imaging industry have established a communication standard to allow medical image data to be transmitted and processed by a plurality of disparate systems. One common standard is the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) protocol. DICOM is a standard for image and information transmission. DICOM relates to the transfer of electronic data, such as medical images and associated data, between medical diagnostic and imaging systems. The DICOM protocol may be employed in communication between medical devices and image archives, such as PACS.
The DICOM standard enumerates a command set, data formats, interface specifications, communication protocols, and command syntax. However, the DICOM standard does not specify details of implementation. DICOM sets forth Information Objects (types of data, such as computerized tomography, magnetic resonance, x-ray, ultrasound, etc.), Service Classes (actions with data, such as send, receive, print, etc.), and data transmission protocols. The Service Class User (SCU) protocol governs use of the DICOM service. The Service Class Provider (SCP) protocol governs the provider of the DICOM service. DICOM application services provide the ability to transfer images and image related data between DICOM applications. A DICOM service-object pair (SOP) is used to push and/or pull information between DICOM applications.
The DICOM protocol, such as the DICOM 3.0 protocol, is the standard digital communication protocol in radiology, cardiology and other medical imaging disciplines. The DICOM data model is organized in roughly three levels: a study level, a series level and an image level. For example, a series may be a group of images and a study may be a group of series. On a storage device, a study may include one or more image files. The image files include information related to the study and series of specific image(s).
A single DICOM file includes a preamble, a header and image data, for example. The preamble identifies the file as a DICOM file. The preamble is typically followed by characters “DICM” indicating that the file is a DICOM file. A DICOM header may include information such as patient name, scan type, image dimensions, file version, transfer syntax, etc. Information in the DICOM header may be organized into one or more groups, for example. DICOM image data may include two-dimensional or three-dimensional image data, for example. In an embodiment, DICOM image data may be compressed or encapsulated to reduce file size. DICOM image data may be compressed using image compression formats, such as JPEG or TIFF image compression, other compression scheme, for example.
A DICOM image file header may include information regarding image dimensions and may include additional information regarding the image data, for example. Image dimension information may include a number of frames, rows, and/or columns of image data, for example. Image dimension information may also include image resolution information, for example.
When images are sent from a digital radiology (Digital RAD) system, for example, a digital X-ray (DX) image type uses a number of parameters to be provided in the image header. Parameters included in the header are values that are designated in the DICOM standard as type 1, 2, or 3. Type 1 parameters are to be included in the header (patient name, etc.) and have a value. Type 2 parameters are included in the header, but the value may be blank. Type 3 parameters are optional to provide in the header (SID, Dose, etc.).
For a DX Image Object type, patient orientation (0020,0020) is a type 1 DICOM parameter, for example. That is, the patient orientation parameter must be present in the header and must have a value associated with the parameter. The patient orientation parameter value designates an orientation of a patient as an image is viewed on a display from left to right and top to bottom. Typical values for the orientation parameter are AF (indicating patient anterior, patient foot), AP (indicating patient anterior, patient posterior) (as displayed on the monitor), etc. For fixed radiology systems, a user typically defines the patient orientation prior to X-ray exposures (similar process also used for MR, CT systems). Detector orientation in a fixed system is a constant, as the detector is typically fixed to a wall, floor, table, etc. For a portable detector, both the patient and the detector orientation may be changed, so requesting the user to set the orientation parameter prior to exposure is both prone to error and difficult to implement during a procedure involving mobile systems.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for improved configuration of DICOM header parameters, such as image orientation.